Eerie Bat-Shaped Nebula Discovered in Deep Space Just Before Halloween
ESO, Chile – Astronomers have captured a striking image of a nebula in the southern sky that strikingly resembles a bat in flight, just days before Halloween. The cosmic “bat signal,” located approximately 10,000 light-years from earth between the constellations Circinus and Norma, was photographed by the European Southern Observatory (ESO) using the OmegaCAM camera on the VLT Survey telescope (VST).
The nebula is a vast cloud of gas and dust, a region where new stars are born – often referred to as stellar nurseries or star birth troughs.The bat-like shape is illuminated by the intense energy released from these newborn stars, which heat surrounding hydrogen atoms causing them to glow a distinctive red. This process is similar to how a glow-in-the-dark sticker appears to shine when light fills the material.
Images of the nebula are valuable to astronomers studying star formation and its impact on the surrounding environment. The finding also highlights a common human phenomenon known as pareidolia – the tendency to perceive familiar shapes in random patterns, like seeing faces in clouds or figures on the Moon.
The image and related information were originally published by Space scoop Universe awareness and translated by Langitselatan.